Forums Horror Movie Talk
Left Of The Cutting Room Floor : The Hills Have Eyes

It's common knowledge that there is a lot cut out of some movies these days in order to get an R rating. It's nothing new, even Hellraiser had to cut out hammer blows, and blood sucking in order to just get an R back in it's day. With the popularity of unrated dvd these days, some time people don't know the difference between the Unrated and Rated verons, that's what this article is here to change. I want to show you just what differences the MPAA demands out of some movies just to scrape by with an R.

So let's start with The Hills Have Eyes (2006)



Before we're even two minutes into the movie we have our first cut. There is 15 frames misng of Pick Ax violence, and the audience hasn't even had a chance to open their chips yet.



Thankfully the next cut isn't for forty minutes , until we get the shotgun suicide. This cut is even shorter, but the aftermath of the blast is one of the most graphic scenes in the movie.



During the attack on the family at night, we lose almost thirty seconds of footage, due to a numerous amount of cuts. The unrated veron feels so brutal in comparison to the R rated veron, just in the scenes with the baby alone.



Ten minutes later in the cave scene, we get one of the most useless cuts I've seen. We lose seventeen seconds of a man walking in a cave and discovering tombs, in the rated he finds the tombs much faster, and there's a longer close up of them.



And we're at the show down.

Here we have

fourteen seconds of cuts, as well as a few scenes the same length but completely different. All the cuts are to take out gore, but I feel they make the gore unrealistic, where in the unrated veron the gore seems more real and painful, thus leaving a impact on the audience.



Finally, in the showdown, like I mentioned, there are scenes the same length. They take away the impact of the blood like so..



and instead shows us a close-up like....



In my opinion, this is a film that must be watched Unrated to get the full impact that the film makers were going for. It's a shame for the MPAA to make cuts that take away from the realism in such a way. When a movies supposed to be brutal and hard to watch, let it.

Great job love!!! love the comparison!!!!!!

BRAVO. I'd love to see more articles like this in the future!! Great job!!

Nice job on catching the comparisons, especially for a film that has a true Uncut DVD release compared to the theatrical release. It just seems like unrated DVD releases are a dime a dozen these days, and for some past films there have been no differences between the two verons or scenes may have been added that are not even grotesque, explicit or have any relevant meaning at all. Rather, an "unrated" symbol is slapped on the cover solely as a marketing gig.

And just as a request, Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday might even be a comparison worth inspecting.